Prof. Robert Heath Receives IEEE Marconi Paper Award

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Published:
June 20, 2017

WNCG Prof. Robert W. Heath, Jr. recently received the 2017 IEEE Marconi Prize Paper Award in Wireless Communications for his work entitled “Spatially Sparse Precoding in Millimeter Wave MIMO Systems,” published in the IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications in March 2014.

The IEEE Guglielmo Marconi Best Paper Award is an annual award for an original paper in the field of Wireless Communications published in the IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications. Only papers published within the last three calendar years are eligible for this award. 

“This work shows how to configure the transmitter and receiver for a power constrained millimeter wave design,” Prof. Heath states. “It was one of the first papers to explain this new design for millimeter wave communication systems and has had a significant impact on the design of millimeter wave for 5G.”

Sponsored by Qualcomm, Inc., the award-winner receives a plaque, an honorarium of up to $1,000, and travel reimbursement up to $3,000 USD. Submitted papers are judged based on their originality, utility, timeliness, and clarity of presentation.

Prof. Heath co-authored this paper with Sridhar Rajagopal, Shadi Abu-Surra and Zhouyue Pi from Samsung Research America, as well as Omar El Ayach, now with Google. Each year, the award is presented at the IEEE International Conference on Communications.

This project was produced in partnership between WNCG and WNCG Affiliate Samsung Research America, to pioneer the future of millimeter wave communications in 5G. The project, and resulting paper, was completed by WNCG Alumnus Omar El Ayach during a summer internship with Samsung, with the help of his Samsung peers and WNCG advisor, Prof. Heath.